Stroke victims 'suffer lack of care'

Thousands of stroke victims are dying or being left disabled every year because of a lack of specialist care in the NHS, campaigners said.

The Stroke Association said 12,000 patients were suffering in this way because stroke was left at the bottom of the list of priorities in the health service.

The charity today launched its new "Why are we Waiting?" campaign to increase awareness of the so-called "postcode lottery" where some patients are being treated in stroke units while others are not.

They said hospitals were failing to deliver on promises made to stroke patients by the National Service Framework stroke target, which said stroke units should be in every hospital by April next year.

Jerry Doyle, of the Stroke Association, said: "There are cardiac units in every hospital, so why not stroke units? People are dying because stroke is not always treated as the emergency it is. Stroke patients are left on general wards where there is no specialist equipment or staff. There are delays in brain scans and sometimes no brain scans at all."

Last month the Government announced plans to end the lottery in cancer services, which led to some drugs being available in certain areas, but not others.

The Stroke Association called on the Government to tackle the stroke inequalities in the same way.

The charity highlighted recent figures which showed in the Thames Valley region more than 57% of hospitals had a stroke unit, but only 11% of stroke patients spent most of their hospital stay in one.

Public Health Minister Melanie Johnson said: "We take services for stroke patients very seriously and are working hard to improve the care patients receive in hospital.

"By April next year 171 out of 181 hospitals will be providing specialist stroke services with a team of dedicated health professionals in place with expertise in this area. That's 94% of hospitals well on their way to introducing this service."